The City of Heroes Website has news that NCsoft is closing developer Paragon Studios and plans to shut down City of Heroes by the end of this year, in spite of the page's title bar still calling this "The World's Most Popular Superpowered MMO" (thanks McCleod). Here's word:

This morning we announced that Paragon Studios will be taking to the skies of City of Heroes for the last time.

In a realignment of company focus and publishing support, NCsoft has made the decision to close Paragon Studios. Effective immediately, all development on City of Heroes will cease and we will begin preparations to sunset the world's first, and best, Super Hero MMORPG before the end of the year. As part of this, all recurring subscription billing and Paragon Market purchasing will be discontinued effective immediately. We will have more information regarding a detailed timeline for the cessation of services and what you can expect in game in the coming weeks.

The team here at Paragon deserves special praise for all that we have accomplished over the last 5+ years. These developers are some of the most creative and talented people in the gaming industry. By now, we've all been given this news internally, but to anyone who may be reading this message after the fact; know that your hard work and dedication has not gone unappreciated or unnoticed. To any potential studios looking to grow your team; hire these people. You won't regret it.

To our Community,

Thank you. Thank you for your years of support. You've been with us every step of the way, sharing in our challenges, encouraging us to make City of Heroes better, more than everyone else thought it could be. We couldn't have come this far without you. I implore you all, focus on the good things of CoH and Paragon Studios. Don't dwell on the "how" or the "why", but rather join us in celebrating the legacy of an amazing partnership between the players and the development team.

On the other hand, many people wasted their life making this game and now it's gone. That's not simple waste, that is imo a cultural crime against humanity. Even if it's just a game, no cultural good should be allowed to perish out of existence because of greed.

And even if your memory is there, your memory is a completely irrelevant thing to us, who don't have it. Any cultural good should be made in such a way that it can be archived and at least in some way re-experienced. If not done, it is lost to the cultural heritage of our race.

And if it's not part of our cultural heritage, nobody will ever learn how to make a better MMO. Which is why this entire genre is the same shit over and over and over....